It's a good thing that EU summits are held from time to time, because they bring to the surface the contrasts within the community that are usually swept under the rug during the bleak weekdays. Just like at a homeowners association meeting (HOA) – no, not the type that is typically organized by Budapest's mayor, but the real thing. Recently, Brussels has seen the accumulation of so much disagreement that they should have ordered a container to have it all transported away. Especially now that the European Commission wants to earmark another 50 billion euros for Ukraine, while we are still not clear about the money that was previously given.
Let's not indulge ourselves in any illusions, the hyenas interested in rebuilding Ukraine are ready to jump in and grab shovels, hoes and picks - on other people's money, including ours, of course. Unfortunately, while it is impossible to predict how long the war in Ukraine – which entails heavy human sacrifices – will drag on, or what the warring sides will destroy beyond what has already been annihilated and how much money will be lost in the depths of Ukrainian corruption, Brussels is withholding money from Hungary. On the other hand, Ukraine is being doted on for political reasons, so it's no wonder that Kyiv – helped by an affirmative US foreign policy – is becoming more and more smug and complacent.
However, the most unnecessary and damaging escalation of the controversy on the part of Brussels is the revival of the migrant quota issue. This red herring of sorts, brought up from the basement, was the last thing that Europe - already bleeding from several war wounds - needed. Exercising their usual diligence, EU bureaucrats have made sure to pit member states against each other this time round, too.
Hungary, together with Poland, has once again taken a sharply negative stance. It is not clear whether Brussels is blind to what it sees or deaf to what it hears, but ethnic tensions flaring up in Paris recently following the death of an Arab teenager shot dead by a French officer have also spread to Belgium and the EU's capital in the run-up to the EU summit. Of course, responsibility must be investigated and established in each case – for this is the true meaning of rule of law, which is not just a report card attached to a country for political reasons - even if it often involves questioning the legality of the use of weapons, which further unsettles the already overstretched police forces.
Paris is in flames, its chic downtown area is being looted, and forty thousand police officers are proving inadequate to restore calm on the streets of France. The riots mainly involve anarchists and immigrant youth. For many years now, all it takes is just one such incident to set this increasingly immigrant society ablaze in the blink of an eye. While non-French citizens make up 7.6% of the population, a quarter of those in prison are non-French, and half of them are African, as our French guest publicist has pointed out recently.
Now, once again, Brussels wants countries like ours, that were not colonizers, to welcome masses of migrants already present in Europe, making the newcomers' connection to us even looser and more elusive than in the case of a French-speaking Cameroonian or Algerian migrant arriving into France. If a country is unwilling to implement this plan, it could be made to pay a fine of up to HUF 8 million (€22,000) after each non-admitted migrant. The amounts we are talking about here would be enough to cover a general wage hike for many Hungarian teachers. No wonder Budapest and Warsaw did not support the joint final declaration of the European Council. Europe is in flames, also in a figurative sense.
